Archive for April 2018

Replacing your electrical panel is a complex job. It can make a real mess, necessitate repairs and replacements all around your home (not just your panel) and cost quite a sum too. Like we said, it’s a big job, but it’s a necessary one, especially if your house is more than forty or fifty years old. That’s the point of today’s post: below, we explain the typical cost to upgrade electrical panel and the wiring in your home, as well as all the reasons why you might need to. Take a look if you’d like to know more!

Why Upgrade Your Electrical Panel?

First off, why should you upgrade, especially if the cost to upgrade electrical panel makes it such a big job? There are a few very good reasons.

If the electrical panel in your home is decades old, then there is a good chance that it will be more susceptible to faults. Faulty wiring is a major cause of house fires in the United States, and you can’t put a price on the safety of you and your family.

If you didn’t know, most houses these days use circuit breakers rather than fuses. That’s because fuses are one-time use. Once a fuse blows, it can’t be used again, whereas you can simply reset a circuit breaker. Older electrical panels use fuses, which may be a reason why you’d like to replace it.

Electrical panels are designed to provide a certain amount of power, up to a maximum. That maximum is typically between 100 and 400 amps. Put simply, that’s the amount of energy that it can distribute at any one time. Any more and there won’t be enough to go around.

When Should You Upgrade?

You can upgrade your panel any time you want to. But while that may be true, it’s best to do it before you have to. There are a number of signs that you should pay attention to which will warn you that your electrical panel is out of date, the most obvious of which is that your appliances don’t work. If you plug in electronics and appliances like your TV, chargers for various devices, kitchen goods and so on, but they simply won’t work at the same time, that means that you’re overloading your electrical panel.

Similarly, if your lights are flickeringthen that means the same thing. There simply isn’t enough electricity to go around, and you’ll need an electrical panel that provides more. You should also think about upgrading if you’re about to add an extension to your home. If you’re about to add another room to your property, or even if you’re just upgrading your kitchen, you should consider whether your electrical panel will be able to handle the extra workload.

Cost To Upgrade Electrical Panel

So, let’s get down to business: how much does it cost to upgrade electrical panel?

First things first, it depends on how old your wiring is. If you’re simply adding a new panel in a home that was only built ten years ago, you won’t have to replace your wiring. If that’s the case, you won’t have to replace wiring throughout your home, which is costly and time consuming.

In that case, then, you’re looking at the cost of parts and labor for a smaller job. The typical 200 amp panel costs between $100-$200, and the job itself normally takes between 8 to 10 hours. Naturally, this depends on the location of your panel and how easy it is to access and work in the space around it. Working in a cramped space can make the process take longer! There may also be other repairs which are necessary for your safety which will extend the cost of parts and labor. Overall, the average cost comes to $1500-$2000, including parts, labor and permit fees.

Cost To Upgrade Electrical Panel And Wiring

Say for the sake of argument that your house is fifty years old, and the wiring hasn’t been changed since the house was built. If that’s the case, you can’t simply change your electrical panel and call the job done. As we mentioned above, the older your wiring gets, the more of a fire hazard it becomes. Not only that, but your outlets, fixtures and circuits may also be damaged. If so, we would 100% recommend that you have these replaced too.

Of course, this does mean that the job becomes more complex, time consuming and costly. But if you leave faulty wiring in place for long enough, the risk of fire only gets higher. It’s impossible to give a ballpark figure because the cost depends on the size of your home, the number of floors in your home, how easy to access your crawlspace is and the age of your home as well. If you need an estimate for a job like this, we recommend that you ask us for a free estimate. We can visit your home, talk with you about what you need and recommend what we think is best.

What Next?

Your next step should be either calling us at (719) 492-6955 or message us through our contact form here. We can arrange a service visit at a time that works for you, so that we can take a look at your problem. Once we’ve had a chance to look around, we can suggest what we think are your best options- the ultimate decision is up to you. We also offer an estimate for our work, so that you’ll never be left out of pocket.

Not everybody is familiar with breaker boxes and what they do. In fact, the average person doesn’t know much about breaker boxes at all. But if you don’t, its important to educate yourself. Such boxes help to prevent circuits from overloading and causing wire damage or electrical fires. In turn, they are essential to safety in any home. If you don’t know much about circuit breakers, we are here to help! Here is everything you could possibly want to know about circuit breakers, and what exactly 200 amp breakers are.

What is a circuit breaker?

You can find circuit breakers on your home’s electrical panel. These panels are what takes incoming electricity and redistributes it throughout the circuits in your home. Circuit breakers are essential to the safety of any home or building. Their job is to prevent circuits from overloading. In laymen’s terms, what does this mean? It means that anytime a home or building’s electrical wiring has too much electricity flowing through it, the breaker will cut the power. Power will remain cut until the problem gets solved. Without circuit breakers homes and buildings would be at much higher risk of potential fires, equipment failures, and other wiring concerns.

What does a circuit breaker do?

Before we can understand what a circuit breaker does and what 200 amp breakers are, we first need to better understand the concept of electricity. There are three major attributes that make up electricity; voltage, currents, and resistance.

Voltage = A force or pressure that makes an electrical charge move. They’re understood in terms of “volts”.

Currents = The “flow” of an electric charge. In other words, the rate at which the charge moves.

Resistance = Is the amount of resistance offered by the conductor

Voltage, currents, and resistance all work together – and you cannot change one without causing change to another. So what does this have to do with your circuit breaker? Electricity in your home is initially received from a power plant. Inside your home, this electricity moves through circuits. One end of the circuit leads to the power plant, and the other leads to the ground. Whenever this circuit is closed, current can move through it. Electricity gets delivered to your home at a steady voltage, but all electrical appliances within your home provide a different amount of resistance. This resistance is what limits how much charge can flow through the circuit. For safety reasons, appliances are generally designed to keep a low current. If too much current were to pass through, the wires would generate too much heat, and a fire hazard would be the result.

This is how electricity should work in your home. But occasionally, things can go awry. In some cases, problems can cause resistance to minimize, pushing huge amounts of current through the wires. In turn, it becomes a safety hazard as the wires can overheat and create a fire. Luckily, it is cases like there where your circuit breaker will come to the rescue. When too much current is being pushed through, the breaker cuts off your circuit until the problem gets fixed.

How does a circuit breaker work? What does it mean to have “200 Amp breakers”?

Fuses are the simplest circuit protection devices. This is simply a thin wire that plugs into the circuit. When a circuit is closed, any charge that flows through it also flows through the wire or fuse. If the fuse gets too hot or there is too much current flowing through it, it disintegrates. This causes the circuit to open and prevents any further damage. Heres the problem with a fuse; you can only use it one time. If you blow a fuse, you have to replace it. This is why so many people are now moving to circuit breakers. They hold the same function as a fuse (opening when there is too much current), but you can use them more than once. How does it work? Unlike fuses, circuit breakers don’t “blow”, they “trip”. When this happens, all you need to do to restart them is simply flip a switch.

Now let’s talk about Amps. An Amp is a unit for measuring electricity. It is the standard unit for measuring how fast an electrical current flows. Each circuit breaker will have a maximum Ampage marked on its handle. This number represents the maximum Amp that can flow through the circuit before it trips. Before the 1950’s, 30 Amp fuse panels were the norm. Travel into the 1960’s, and 60 Amp panels became more widely preferred. Nowadays, 100 and 200 Amp breakers have become the standard. In fact, 100 Amps are the minimum allowed, while 200 Amp breakers are the preferred option.

What are the different types of breakers?

There are 2 standard types of circuit breakers; single and double pole. Single poles probably make up most of the breakers within your box. They are single switches designed for delivering electricity to smaller appliances. Double poles are for operating the larger appliances like washers, dryers, and dishwashers. These resemble two switches joined together.

So, why should you choose breakers? Well, you could just choose a simple fuse. But why continue to replace fuses when you can just flick a switch? Circuit breakers are an important choice in any home because they control your safety. Breakers help to keep the electrical currents flowing properly in your home, shielding you and your family from electrical fires. In terms of Amps, 200 is the standard in most homes today.

Where can you buy 200 Amp breakers? At WireWorksCoInc.com. At Wire Works Co Inc, we can help you install electrical panel upgrades that will keep your home or business safe. With the help of our professionals, we can ensure your home never loses power or suffers the consequences associated with a bad electrical panel. Invest in your safety today!